An all so common myth is that the more we sweat, the more calories we burn. I’m sure you’ve seen the person in the dead heat of summer running at the local park wearing a sweat suit, or maybe you’ve seen someone wearing a “waist slimmer” belt while they walk on the treadmill. Maybe you’ve got friends trying to convince you to try hot yoga because they sweat so much, therefore it must be the best workout. There are countless workouts, gear, and supplements on the market with the goal to cause you to sweat more. I hear all the time that if you’re not sweating you’re not working hard enough. To help us understand how many of the products available are gimmicks we must first know a little science.
Your body has two types of sweat glands, eccrine, and apocrine glands. Eccrine glands are your temperature regulators. As your body temperature rises your nervous system kicks in to tell the glands to produce sweat. Sweat is then produced to help cool the body back down. While apocrine glands, which are found in the underarm and groin area, are more closely related to stress and anxiety.1 The truth is that sweating means your core temperature is elevated and your body is trying to cool itself. That’s it. Or maybe that you’re stressed or nervous. Sweat is made of water and sodium not calories or fat.
A research study from Colorado State University discovered that participants of hot yoga burned between 330 calories for women and 460 calories for men over a 90 minute session. Which is roughly the equivalent of a 90 minute brisk walk. This study also suggest that many people are overestimating their caloric burn because many devices pick up heart rate and estimate calories burned by heart rate and duration, but do not take into account that the heart rate is elevated by climate and not one’s activity.2 This is not to say that hot yoga is an ineffective workout. It simply suggest that it’s not as effective as many believe.
The fact is that we are all different. Some of us sweat a lot, while others don’t. There are those that can run three miles and never break a sweat. While others might sweat while walking to the mailbox. Sweating has more to do with our nervous system and the amount of water our body is willing to lose, than the intensity of the workout or the calories that are being burned.
1Harris, J. (2013, May). American College of Sports Medicine. Retrieved September 29, 2016, from http://acsm.org/
2Yoanna, M. D. (2014, July 23). CPR. Retrieved September 29, 2016, from http://www.cpr.org/
Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspiration
Great blog, I enjoyed how you brought in that research study. I think it is a point everyone should know when it what devices they use to keep track of calories burned.
ReplyDelete